Have your group plan and host a harvest party for your church’s children. Make the party’s centerpiece a Halloween devotion. Get a large pumpkin and recruit six group members to help. As your teenagers carve the pumpkin, have them use the following devotion to help remind the children what it means to have Jesus in their hearts: Group Member #1-(Cut out the stem part and pull out the gooey insides.)…
Preparation: You’ll need Bibles, snacks hidden around your meeting room, several different foreign-language tapes (check your local library for these), and a cassette player for each tape. (If necessary, have kids bring cassette players from home to the meeting.) If you can’t find foreign-language tapes, record five-minute segments of foreign-language cable TV channels.…
Because this study deals with such a sensitive, controversial topic, you may want to talk with students’ parents at least a few days before the study. Let parents know that the study presents differing opinions about abortion. Parents will appreciate your openness, and they’ll be prepared to talk with their students at home about their own views concerning abortion.…
I’m a Hollywood Square Have you ever had a morning where God used the teenagers in your group to smack you upside the head with something you’ve missed? I know, I know…all the time. I had one of these revelations a few weeks ago.…
I’m writing this column during Colorado’s 2006 Holiday Blizzard: Part 2. And like most sequels it’s not something we asked for, it’s overstayed its welcome, it’s even less fun than the original, and it’s full of way too much fluff. One benefit of being stuck at home is that I’ve had lots of time to think about the past year.…
Nothing says, “Old guy who doesn’t understand me” like using media that was popular when you were a kid.As youth pastors, we are constantly looking for new ways to reach our students. We try to create an atmosphere that students want to be a part of.…
The award-winning PBS documentary program Frontline tackles the really tough issues—the Iraq war, sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, AIDS and homosexuality, the meth epidemic, and the toughest one of all…the teenage brain. On the must-watch list for youth leaders, Frontline’s "Inside the World of the Teenage Brain" should be a double-must.1 It’s a smart, well-researched, and fascinating roller-coaster ride through the wicked synapses of a teenager’s command-and-control center.…
Almost every young child eventually asks mom or day, “Why do bad things happen to good people.” It does not take long for one to discover that life does not seem fair and sometimes, the odds seem stacked against you. To spark conversation on the topic, watch the movie Holes as a group and follow it up with this devotion.…
How are your teenagers learning the gospel? Well, widespread reports about their biblical illiteracy pretty much rule out the Bible as a primary source. Their parents are often too busy, tired, and scattered to fit in gospel talk. And Sunday school?…
‘The editors of Rev! magazine sat down with Christine Yount Jones, executive editor of Children’s Ministry Magazine and Rick Lawrence, executive editor of Group Magazine, to listen to their views on what’s happening in the areas of children’s and youth ministry.…
